Venture Manager (Contract)

Role overview and purpose:

Reporting to the Chief Program Officer, the NEXT Canada Venture Manager is a public facing role and key contributor to the success of NEXT Canada’s programs.

This  role spans three critically important functions

• Venture Support + Founder Success
• Operations Support/Program Delivery
• Recruitment

Specific responsibilities include:  

Program Design and Delivery

• Maintains a strong understanding of best in class standards
• • Provides suggestions for program improvements to CPO and shares information with team in Montreal
  • Provides cost analysis for any program enhancements
  • Helps with pitch practice sessions
• Actively facilitates in person and virtual sessions within NEXT programs
• Actively involved in program review and evaluation

Venture Support

• Meets with NEXT Toronto 10-15 ventures at a regular cadence
• • evaluates and documents their progress
  • provides strategic, administrative and moral support
  • manages any performance issues
  • provides network referrals
  • suggests most outstanding ventures for Venture Reveal and Venture Day
  • Works directly with ventures to refine their pitch presentations
• Ensures all venture information is compiled
• • Shares info for website 
  • Support with evaluation metrics and reporting
  • Track milestone success for promotion via social media channels
• Stays in contact with alumni ventures
• • maintains strong NEXT AI alumni outreach
  • encourages alumni to use NEXT resources
  • Provide referrals for alumni to potential investors or partners

Operations Support:

• Provides support in the planning and execution of NEXT Canada events
• • Attends all events and provides hands on support
  • Assists with planning and set up
  • Support communication strategies (social media, public relations, etc.) 
  • Carry out business development at internal and external program events to develop a network.
  • Maintains Airtable venture tracking database

Recruitment

• Oversees the development and execution of a recruitment strategy that results in a solid pipeline of high quality NEXT candidates
• • Utilizes network to build a solid diverse pipeline of potential NEXT candidates
  • Collaborates with MTL team to capitalize on strengths of both teams
  • Attends recruiting events as a representative of all NEXT Canada programs
  • Evaluates applicants in the organization of recruitment events.
  • Strategizes on use of budget to best utilize paid campaigns or sponsorships
  • Conducts ecosystem mapping/scrapes for potential applicants
  • Reviews applications
  • Updates recruitment media kits
• Other duties as may be assigned

Qualifications

• 2+ years of founder and/or startup operator experience is preferred
• Demonstrated understanding of startup fundamentals, including product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, early traction, and fundraising readiness.
• Experience working directly with founders/venture teams in a support, advisory, accelerator, incubator, or program-delivery capacity.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills (written and verbal), including comfort leading sessions, giving actionable feedback, and representing the organization publicly.
• High execution and operations discipline, with ability to manage multiple priorities, maintain structured records/CRM systems, and deliver against timelines.